Contact
Rob (left) at Norwich Print Fair
Email: barnesart@btinternet.com
Phone 01508 521029
I am based in Norfolk about 15 miles from Norwich UK.
Blank greetings cards may be bought directly from Green Pebble.
Green Pebble Interview:
What compelled you to choose art?
I just loved my first box of paints from the start. Cheapo watercolours, yes, but the more I painted, the more I
liked the idea of being an artist. A certain degree of innocence and ignorance helps make a child think they
can do art.
Was it always plain sailing?
The more I learned, the harder it got and at art school paintings were over-worked. The appeal of printmaking
was that there is always an end to the sequence and layers of ink. No more going back to change things.
I love the physical nature of cutting shapes and lines in lino. The craft involved is a challenge and graduating
coloured inks is a fascination I would not be without. My favourite birds are oystercatchers and pheasants. I
like distant views in the landscape and moving wildlife such as birds in flight and hares chasing. When it’s not
wildlife, I love old wooden boats on the shingle at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
I have worked on old printing presses all my career, but nothing compares with my Harry Rochat albion press
based on a press made in 1854. Cast in 2013, it is perfectly over-engineered and I love it!
Is there something you wish you could do better?
Every linocut is an attempt to challenge myself, but If I’m honest I would love to play the violin better than I do. I
expect other people who hear my playing think that too.
How easy is it to source ideas?
The more I work, the more I see. The more I see, the more I work. Printmaking is my way of observing nature.
Do you remember your first sale?
Tradition has it that your auntie buys the first picture.
What is your typical day like?
Now I have finished my day job, my day is not remotely typical. Sometimes I am in my studio by 7.30 and
sometimes not. When I’m thinking about my next linocut I may do very little, except find a feeble excuse to find
a tearoom or meet up with a friend.
Do you take commissions?
I have done them, and they work if the brief is not too narrow. An artist needs a bit of wriggle room in the design.
I admire portrait artists who can keep to their commission. Landscape is more flexible a subject. The last one I
did was very successful, though the risk is that the client might not like the final interpretation. Quite a pressure.
